Alabasta stood stock still as he listened to the results of the third trial being bellowed out. He didn’t even hear his name being called for the top five. It must be known that everyone, including the great leaders expected him to take first place in this trial. Yet, he wasn’t even able to come out into the top five. This was a type of humiliation that he couldn’t even comprehend. He knew that it was his own anger that led him to not get into the top five but right now he just wanted to blame Akata.

He started to laugh coldly and spoke out in a cruel sinister tone. “I can’t wait to personally rip you to shreds.” His eyes were bloodshot and he seemed to not be himself. With those words he walked away toward a corner and awaited the start of the next trial.

Scarlet Runic Lord Tafei rose up into the air and spoke with a calm soothing voice. “It is time for the fourth trial. It will be a trial of potential. All of those who weren’t eliminated can move onto the fifth trial. Every beast, whether eliminated or not, should have their potential checked. Those who weren’t eliminated must have it checked. Let’s begin.” With that, he waved his paw and a light sprang up on all of the beasts that hadn’t been eliminated in the third trial. The one’s who had been eliminated had to go to a separate place to have their potential checked.

Akata appeared on the fourth stage in front of two pillars. One of the pillars were black while the other was white. He stood in front of the two pillars just like everybody else.

“Touch the white pillar.” Scarlet Runic Lord Tafei said. As he said that, every beast and Akata all touched the white pillar in front of them. Instantly numbers began to pop up on the white pillar.

Akata looked at his pillar and saw that it had the number 13 on it. He looked around to see if anyone else had the same number but couldn’t really find anyone. Most of the other numbers were 17 18 with the lowest one he saw being 15. ‘Could this be showing my age?’ He thought to himself.

Before he could think anymore Scarlet Runic Lord Tafei spoke out again. “Touch the black pillar.” Just like before, everyone followed his orders and touched the black pillar in front of them. Instead of a number popping up this time, however, the pillar broke into 11 different parts. Each part floated in the air above the other making the pillar seem taller.

Akata saw this and then looked on. Then the bottom part lit up with a red light. Then the second part lit up along with the third. All of a sudden 7 parts lit up fully. However, it didn’t stop there. All of a sudden, Akata’s pillar started to shake as the red light moved over and made way for a green light. The green light shot up to light 7 parts as well. But, it only lit up half of the 7th part. Half of the pillar was lit by a red light while the other half was lit up with a green light.

The black and white pillar then began to shake as they came closer to each other. In the blink of an eye the two merged together to make a multicolored pillar. The pillar then went all gray as it then turned red, then turned orange, yellow, green, and finally lit halfway with blue. There it just stayed.

Akata looked on with confusion as he didn’t know what none of this meant or what was happening. But he could tell that the higher ups knew what was going on. Ever since that green light started to show up on the black pillar all of the experts eyes filled with shock. Some of them stood up and others went as far as to fly in his direction.

He could feel the pressure weighing down on him and it wasn’t good at all. He could even feel a cold savage aura lock onto him. But it wasn’t from Alabasta this time, but from almost every single expert in the area. He wanted to know what was happening and he didn’t have to wait long before a voice rang out.

“Mortal. I would have liked the chance to experiment on you but it seems that I won’t get the chance anymore. Ahaha. To think that you are actually a plant cultivator as well as a mortal cultivator! This is simply wonderful. I’ll steal your cultivation base and have it for myself.” A wild laughter rang out as a 12 meter tall Gatorape shot towards Akata.

He wasn’t the only one as other experts shot toward Akata as well from afar. All of these beasts were in the Beast Rank. The weakest one among them was at the 5th Grade. Akata couldn’t stand up to the pressure that was being targeted at him and he coughed up multiple mouthfuls of blood. His face paled and he backed up from his spot.

Scarlet Runic Lord Tafei snorted coldly and waved his hand, causing a ring of orange runes to appear and rain down fireballs toward the incoming experts. He wasn’t alone as other experts from the Scarlet Rune Tribe joined in to help out. Instantly fighting ensued between the groups.

As it went on others joined in to help out. Even though, the Scarlet Rune Tribe was number one, against the other top three tribes they were clearly at a disadvantage. Just when Golden Runic Lord Taple was about to step in and put a stop to all of this, Star Sovereign Allica and Heaven Beast Monarch Goliath both stopped him.

“Golden Runic Lord, this is not our place to get involved. It is just one mortal who, for some reason, has a plant cultivation base. It would be extremely beneficial for us to get that for ourselves. Why are you still protecting him?” Star Sovereign Allica said in her calmest voice which still sounded cold.

“Get the hell out of my way Allica!” Golden Runic Lord Taple said as he waved his hand causing an orange and blue rune to mix together and shoot out toward her. But then, Heaven Beast Monarch Goliath intervened and stopped the attack. Soon, the three of them were fighting.

There were battles going on everywhere now. Some of the experts sent messages to their young tribe members telling them to capture Akata. This made it so that even the young generation was fighting as well. The Scarlet Rune Tribe was fighting by themselves and were constantly being pushed back.

Tabet had made it to Akata’s side and was helping him fight. It also helped that they had support of the only Beast Ranked youth of this generation, Palet. With the three of them working together not many beasts were able to get close to Akata. The only troublesome one’s were the two Halfstep Beast Ranked beasts, Reina from the Flying Dragon Snake Tribe and Gringa from the Earthen Beast Tribe. The two of them alone weren’t completely able to tie down Palet but when Alabasta joined in it changed that.

Pina and Gorgon joined hands to fight Tabet. They couldn’t handle him alone but they could when other beasts joined in. It was extremely tough to fight against multiple opponents by yourself no matter who it was. And all of the Scarlet Tigers were experiencing that right now.

Akata was fighting as well using ruthless tactics to keep from being captured. He struck out multiple times causing powerful blasts of air to hit the beasts. With his body being comparable to the 6th Grade, it made his punches and kicks extremely fierceful. He constantly used his Lunarsun Steps to evade attacks and to gain an advantage. With the gold and red light shining over his body he looked like a warrior on the stage.

But no matter how ruthless he, or the other Scarlet Tigers were, the number of opponents they were facing were too much. Not to mention the fact that their opponents weren’t weak at all. They could be said to have their same strength. This made for a bitter fight for the Scarlet Tigers.

It was at this point that a sigh could be heard. “I’ve lived a long life but this… is just too enticing of an offer to give up.” Dragon Emperor Hymna spoke out as he slowly rose. An ancient air rolled off of him as his eyes landed on Akata’s body. He didn’t even look around him as he slowly made his way over to Akata.

Golden Runic Lord Taple and Scarlet Runic Lord Tafei were both panting at this point. One was being held up by others while the other, even if he wasn’t held up, couldn’t stand a chance against this powerful figure. He was at the 3rd Grade of the Temporal Rank after all! The same level as his own father.

Dragon Emperor Hymna stopped in the air above Akata, looking down at him. A bitter smile appeared on his old face and his eyes looked forgiving. But then that all vanished as his face filled with determination. He stretched his hand out in an attempt to grab Akata. “Come here!” He yelled out.

“Are you looking to die?!” A voice rang out.